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Episode40
Reaver Incursion on the Tenacious Hound We picked up the action with the Alliance Fleet deploying through the Tree Gate into Kovinus space (a month's journey in an instant!). We refined the battle plan a bit more with the Reaver Security Council and Fleet Admiral. The plan was to create a ruse that made the Reavers think they had missed something important and then ambush them in-force at Boron-C. We considered a variety of ways to 'leak' the message but ultimately decided on a volunteer suicide mission for a scout deep into Reaver-controlled space. To avoid any sneaky Reaver Interrogations the scout was not informed of the actual mission and instead believed they were to deliver vital information to a spy-ship hiding near Sable. Our expectation was that the scout would get scooped up and assimilated by the Reavers who would then learn of the intel. In addition to the intel, the Ascendent Fleet was also to fall back to Boron-C leading the Reaver fleet and planet to their doom where the Alliance fleet would emerge from the asteroid belt in a classic pincer stratagem. Things we learned: *The Reaver Planet ('Skellgrax'), was home to the Zone Alpha campaign. A critical success on the Reaver Lore gave Oz access to all the knowledge from that campaign. * It's unclear if the Zone Alpha (and related zone) experiments were intended to perfect the zombie-strain or farm PC's but both happened. * The PC's from the Zone Alpha campaign are unusual and caused visible warping of the 'great balance'. The events of that campaign ended about three years ago (game time) so its unclear what became of them but it seems likely they are still on the planet somewhere. * The Reaver planet is a ludicrously high-level Reaver who travels the cosmos harvesting souls from other planets as well as it's own 'soul farms'. It seems likely that 'punching its heart' will not kill it. * The Reaver fleet at Sable is about as big as either the Alliance or Ascendent fleets but not both * Reavers hunger for souls in a way that makes them lose their self-control. * Pete is quite willing to sacrifice souls 'when necessary'. Oz, less so. Kiwi wonders what all the fuss is about. On the journey through Kovinus space we had some off-time (4-5 blocks?) before our Reaver Sense informed us that Reavers were near! Pete didn't need his Reaver Sense to tell him that the Reavers had somehow found us (using the Tree Gate in the cargo hold?) when the entire place was wrapped in a disturbingly familiar magical darkness. The Reaver attackers were similar to the ones we'd met in the Gate structure way back at the beginning of this chapter. There was a Spawner at the center of the darkness with a couple reavers in support and zone alpha zombies spawning in at a pace of about one per round. What was different this time was that they were using one of their fancy 'tears in space' to gain access to the ship. We've heard of them using this technology but this was the first time we'd seen it in-person. Oz was in his quarters when it happened so didn't make it to the cargo hold until late in the first round. He made a point of stopping a Reaver that broke off from the pack and was moving up through the ship jamming doors open. Gaze of Righteousness took that Reaver down before he could get up to too much mischief. Kiwi was in his herum on Hometree One when the attack began but he was still in the thick of things within segments (minor reality bail on the Portal spell but moving right along...). Pete, meanwhile, had been taking a vicious beating from Zombies and Reavers alike but still managed to get his anti-reaver field in front of the 'tear' so that no more Reavers could jump through. Pete had some handy anti-darkness tech which broke the darkness enough for Kiwi to take out the Spawner. When the Spawner was stunned the darkness dropped (some kind of active upkeep?) and when it died the 'tear in space' collapsed. Noteworthy: the Spawner sacrificed one of its own to cover the everyone in explosion-goo which powered up the zombies and would have hurt the PC's if they weren't epic enough. We called it there after an extended session with one Reaver and a few zombies left. Oz would like to point out that we have a unique opportunity here. We have a single Reaver isolated and far from home as well as a husk to use as materials for our Reaver-Speak ritual. If we could catch it 'alive', then we could interrogate the shit out of it and god knows what gems we could learn. It could be the edge we need in our upcoming battle. 33 Genaric 1 Combat 11 Combat for the Logger . Back to Space Junk Log Category:Space Junk